Question about Programed Recording in General (at bottom of this thread)

[christopheramos]

Can anyone tell me what timeshifting is? And what that does?

I bought a Coby DVDR-1280 and the guide doesn't explain it (the guide is pretty pathetic actually).

Also, I would love to find people to talk to who have also bought this unit. Because there's a ton of things about it that I just don't understand .... like how to plug it in.

No, I'm kidding, but I do have a ton of questions about things that I really don't understand about this unit, such as:

1. Proper connection to Direct TV satelite receiver,
2. Why the tuner can only recognize one channel (the standard channel 3), but no other channels,
3. Why the machine causes loud audio popping noises,
4. Etc., etc., etc.

Thanks!!!!
Chris

[TBoneit]

Timeshifting means recording something now and watching at a later time.

2. You must have it hooked up to something that only provides a channel 3 output, such as Cable Box, Tivo, Satellite TV receiver, VCR and so on. To receive all the channels it needs to be hooked up to the cable feed / Antenna before anything else.

3. Loud Adudio popping noises when playing a DVD or watching something from the tuner would seem to indicate a bad hookup or a bad Coby. It should have sample hookups ine the manual you can follow.

[christopheramos]

. You must have it hooked up to something that only provides a channel 3 output, such as Cable Box, Tivo, Satellite TV receiver, VCR and so on. To receive all the channels it needs to be hooked up to the cable feed / Antenna before anything else.

Well, the problem that I am having with the satelite hook up is this. Normally the satelite cable runs to the back of the satelite receiver box, and then another cable out from the receiver box to the back of the tv.

If I run the satelite directly into the Coby, and by pass the satelite receiver all together, then I get nothing. It seems like DirectTV requires their signal to go through their receiver before it goes into any other equipment.

Does that make sense?

[Nelson37]

Yes, that is how it is supposed to work.

Coax to Satellite receiver. S-video from Sat receiver to recorder. Change channels on satellite reciever. set time on recorder. Tuner on recorder is essentially worthless.

[christopheramos]

Gotcha! Thanks. That explains a lot of why I am getting ticked at this tuner thing.

[TBoneit]

The tuner is working correctly if you only DirecTV. DirecTV or Dishnetwork can not be tuned by a normal tuner and even a FTA receiver can only see the channels not decrypt them to watchability. The channels are not in the Normal TV tuner frequency range and they are encrypted as well.

[lordsmurf]

Remember that coax is just a data carrier. Not everything will be understood by a tv tuner, which can only under 2 kinds of data, cable and terrestrial broadcasts.

[dphirschler]

Timeshifting means recording something now and watching at a later time.

Timeshifting in DVR terms also usually means recording something and being able to start watching it before the recording is even finished. Often it refers to live TV. You pause while you go to the bathroom and the DVR continues to record the live program while it is in paused state. Then you can resume watching and even fast forward commercials and maybe eventually catch up to real time. Or you could rewind parts and watch them again without affecting the live recording. Cool stuff.


Darryl

[christopheramos]

Hello folks, I have another question. This time about scheduled recording:

I have a Coby DVD Recorder. This question probably applies to all recorders, though.

I have hooked up the unit, and got everything set up. My Direct TV satelite signal runs into the back of the satelite receiver, then out and into the Coby, then out of the Coby to the TV.

Now, when I scan channels through the Coby tuner, it only picks up channel 3. This might be normal, I don't know. So I change channels with the Direct TV remote.

My problem is, when I want to schedule/program the Coby to record something, I can't set it to any other channel than channel 3.

I don't know what the deal is. This would especially be a problem if I want to record a couple of different programs on different channels.

Any ideas here (the owner's manual doesn't help at all).

Thanks!!!!!

[TBoneit]

You can only get channel three out of the DirecTV unit. Your Coby and all other DVD recorders can not tune Satellite TV channels thus you have it hooked up properly and Channel Three is all there is.

In actuallity the DirecTv signal runs into their box, it then has the channel tuned and decrypted and then that decrypted video signal is fed to a channel3/4 output module out to the TV or in your case the Coby.

What you need to do is read the manual for your Coby and see if it can tune the DirecTv channels via IR or as an alternative if your DirecTv can have timers set that will change the channel for you. If so then you'll have to set two timers one in the Sat TV box and one in the Coby.

I'm not familiar with the DirecTv units as I have Dishnetworks for TV.

The dishnetworks have a function where they can control VCRS for example. I have no idea if DirecTV has that feature.

The long and the short of it is the Coby and all other DVD recorders can not tune Satellite TV Channels.

[christopheramos]

Okay, thanks. I know there's nothing in the Coby manual. It just talks as if the unit can tune the channels normally without any problems.

I guess then I will have to see if the timer option you suggested can work. I am guessing that I'll have to contact Direct TV to find that out??

Thanks!

P.S.
Also, I have like 500 channels through Direct TV, and the Coby only scans up to 125 channels. So I don't understand that at all, even if the Coby recognized more than just channel 3.

[TBoneit]

Read the DirecTv manual, it should say.

Your are confusing channels with channels so to speak.

The 125 Channels are the OTA/Cable analog channels

The 500 channels DirecTV has are digital channels, I can only assume that they are counting every local channel they also provide somewhere to get to 500 different channels, There are not 500 general channels being broadcast if you exclude locals.

Your Coby and the other brands of DVD recorders also can not tune to the HDTV channels being broadcast either FYI.